Monday, December 26, 2011

Welcome Michael and Tamara










Michael and Tamara were visiting us from Minneapolis and we decided to have a dinner for them. Robert and Darryl joined us.

We started with Mini-Potato Pancakes topped with smoked Salmon and Caviar and Crème Fresh. This is an easy appetizer made even easier by using frozen potato pancakes! We used Linda’s Gourmet Latkes. We purchased them at Whole Food. Not as good as homemade, but a whole lot cleaner, with no splattered fat from the frying.

For the main course we started with Butternut Squash And Tomato Soup from The Foods of Morocco by Paula Wolfert. This is an incredible soup. Everyone swoons over it. It has the flavor of butternut squash but is kicked up to an entirely different level by the addition of the Harissa Spice mixture that we bought at McCall’s Meat and Fish. You just keep adding the Harissa until you reach the level of heat that you like. You can find the recipe for the soup in our blog of Nov. 5, 2011. Click the date to get the recipe.

For the main course we served: Lamb Steamed With Preserved Lemon And Cumin from Moro The Cookbook by Sam & Sam Clark. This is one of our all time great Moroccan recipes from a favorite restaurant in London. You can get the recipe from our blog of: Feb. 10, 2010. Click the date to get the recipe. We served it with couscous. The lamb was perfect. This is one of those slow roasted dishes. We simply put the meat in a clay pot with the spices and put the dish in the oven for over 7 hours. The meat was succulent, falling off of the bone.

For dessert we served our annual dessert: Mary Ann’s Fruitcake from: Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Cookbook. This cake is great. Everyone loves it. We usually make it the first week of December then and start to eat it around Christmas. It keeps well, is great toasted and also freezes. I also like making it, because I work the dough with my hands and it is like playing with putty. This is a winner! You can find the very easy recipe in our blog of: Jan. 1, 2011.
Click the date to get the recipe.

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